Italian painter and architect, also called Vianino. He was a pupil of Giulio Campi. Viani moved to Munich in 1586 to work at the court of William V, Duke of Bavaria (reg 1579-98), where he participated in the decoration of the Residenz (the Antiquarium and the Grottenhof) under the guidance of Friedrich Sustris. Called to Mantua in 1592, he became court painter to Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga. His paintings are preserved in Mantua, in Sant'Andrea and in the Palazzo Ducale. As an architect, he partly reworked and decorated the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua (around 1600), built, on the design of Leon Battista Alberti, the transept of Sant'Andrea, as well as the choir and the crypt (1597-1600), built the Villa Ducale in Maderno, Lake Garda (1603), the church and convent of St. Ursula (1608). //